For Your Smile
by Roadrunnerz
Summary: A short story written in response to a challenge to write a David and Anna story based on the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty. Takes place after Leora's birth. Features David/Anna, Tad, Aidan.
1. Chapter 1

**_For your smile_**

"A_t last, however, to her own and her husband's inexpressible joy, she give birth to a daughter. As soon as the palace guns announced this event, the whole nation went wild with delight. Flags waved everywhere, bells were set pealing until the steeples rocked, crowds tossed up their hats and cheered, while the soldiers presented arms, and even strangers meeting in the street fell upon each other's neck, exclaiming: "Our Queen has a daughter! Yes, yes—Our Queen has a daughter! Long live the little Princess!" _

-Sleeping Beauty - Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

_Pine Valley Hospital, Pine Valley, PA_

Tad Martin was here to meet his father, Joe. To take him out to dinner and discuss father and son things, as fathers and sons were obliged to do once every few months.

He hadn't expected to see David Hayward here. Much less to see David Hayward beaming and smiling. Tad remembered hearing something from Liza a few days ago about Hayward's daughter's christening. Perhaps today was the day.

David was taking off his white lab coat, while talking to a nurse, as though he was getting ready to leave the hospital.

Tad Martin was not a vengeful man. Still, there was a part of him that couldn't understand why. Why did David, who lied and schemed and hurt everyone in his path, end up with so much? He had a wife he adored, a career others envied…a beautiful baby girl.

Why?

_Several doors down_

A young surgeon walked out into the hospital corridor, a grave expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, Mrs. Zoltan. We did everything we could for your husband."

The old woman with the wrinkled skin and hair the colour of burnt ashes nodded in silence. She knew he was dead. She had known at the precise moment his heart stopped beating, forty-five seconds ago. She had felt it then, deep in her bones, but she didn't bother telling the young man.

He thought she would be shocked at the news, and so she let him believe that she was. Shocked. People here were different than in the Old World. People here didn't feel the same way. They didn't _believe_ the same way.

"I want to see him," she demanded.

The surgeon put his arm around her shoulder, "Of course, Ma'am." And he ushered her into the operating room.

He stood behind her while she bent over his lifeless body.

"Can you please leave?" the old woman asked him.

The surgeon left the room, leaving her alone with the dead man.

The old woman kissed his face. It was cold and unresponsive.

To most people her husband was a nobody. A gypsy immigrant who barely spoke English. A high school janitor who never learned how to read.

But she knew better. She knew exactly how powerful he was. How great his gift.

_'Cup your hands over my face,' he had told her one day, long ago. 'Make a wish.' _

'_And what will you do?' she had asked._

'_I'll make it come true.' _

And he did.

And now she did it one last time. She cupped her hands over his face, while her tears fell down on them, dripping between her fingers, onto his cheeks underneath.

_Outside, further down the hallway_

Tad Martin sat down and waited. His father was running late and, as if to add to his annoyance; David Hayward was still in his line of vision.

He was still talking to the nurse, an easy, relaxed smile on his face. Then Hayward scanned his watch and excused himself from her. It looked as though he had to be somewhere and was in a hurry.

'Unlike myself, who has nowhere to go. Nowhere to be.'

Why was he so full of bitterness all of a sudden? Tad rarely dwelled on the fact that David Hayward seemed to have everything he once wanted. But now, seeing him here, in the hospital, smiling and carefree, fed an anger in him that he didn't know he still possessed.

'For once, I wish you could suffer…suffer the terrible pain I've suffered and to know what it's like to lose everything, the way I lost everything.'

He felt a hand on his shoulder. A flat, wiry palm pressing into it.

"Be careful," he heard a voice behind him say. A woman's voice.

Tad gasped. Her hand was burning hot. It felt as though a branding iron was seeping through the fabric of his shirt and into the flesh beneath.

He recoiled from her touch, thinking surely his shirt and shoulder were on fire. He expected to smell smoke when he pushed her hand away, but there was nothing. No mark of any kind.

"Be careful," she repeated sadly.

"Careful of what?" he demanded, breathing heavily, feeling suddenly light-headed. Her body was old and frail, yet there was an undeniable energy coming from this woman with the ash black hair.

"Be careful what you wish for," was all she said.

Her touch drained him and he had to close his eyes for just a moment. A mere second.

When he opened them again she was gone.

And the first pair of eyes he locked his with were those of David Hayward.

_Wildwind Estate Chapel_

Anna Devane paced the aisle of the chapel, looking at her silver watch, annoyed.

"Where is he?" she asked her nephew. "The priest is waiting. He should have been here twenty minutes ago."

Aidan put his hands on her shoulders, "Will you relax? He'll be here. He's probably just stuck in traffic or held up at the hospital."

"Held up for his daughter's christening?" she asked incredulously. "All this was David's idea. You think he could at least make the effort to be on time for it!"

Anna bit her fingernails. Something was wrong; she sensed it. She had her doubts about the christening ever since David first mentioned it to her. Neither of them were particularly religious. In fact, Anna couldn't remember the last time she had set foot in a church to attend a service.

"Why don't we let Leora choose her faith, when she gets older?" she had suggested.

But David didn't see it that way.

"When I operated on her, before she was born," he gently explained. "You asked me to have faith. That wasn't easy for me, but I went to pray for her. For both of you. And now, I feel like our daughter should be baptized, _in that faith_."

Even though Anna didn't agree, his words had made her smile then. David Hayward, of all people, trying to convince her that he wanted a christening for their little girl. To her, faith wasn't necessarily confined within the walls of a church but Anna didn't need much convincing. It wasn't so much an entrance into a world of faith; Leora's christening was also a celebration. A celebration of love and life.

It had been seven long months ago that she was born, and for the first few months both Anna and David had worried endlessly that she might need surgery again, that she might not be strong enough to survive without a pacemaker. Yet in another supreme lesson of faith, their little girl had proven both of them wrong, her tiny heart growing stronger with each passing week.

Maggie approached her now, carrying Leora in her arms. "I think she wants her mommy," Maggie told Anna, handing the girl over to her.

Anna took Leora from her hands, and kissed her forehead, "I know, baby. You're impatient like your Mom, aren't you?" As always, the baby calmed her, making it unable for her to stay angry. "I'll tell you what, for his next birthday, we're going to buy your father a watch and set it half an hour fast." The baby was swathed in a long, white silk christening gown whose fabric fell so far to the ground; it touched Anna's heels when she walked.

"I'll tell the priest he needs to hang on a little longer," Aidan told her.

"Thanks." Her nephew had an infinite patience that she could only envy. Anna turned around with the baby in her arms to see the faces of those they had invited to the christening.

There was Maureen, whom Aidan had brought along. And Henry, Maggie's date. Then there was Janelle, from the clinic where David worked. And Greenlee. And lastly, Edmund, who had been kind enough to let them use the chapel at Wildwind for the service.

Seven guests in total. Each of whom wanted nothing but happiness for Leora.

In the distance, Anna heard the ringing of a cell phone. She barely took note of it until she was about to sit down in one of the pews and felt Edmund approaching her from behind.

His expression was serious, and Anna's instincts immediately sensed that something wasn't quite right in the way he looked at her.

"What is it?" she asked, half whispering when she saw that Leora was on the verge of falling asleep in her arms.

"It's for you."

Anna gave him a puzzled look, "Can you take a message?" Leora was about to be baptized. Surely this could wait.

Edmund shook his head, "No…you should take this, Anna. It's about David."

"David?"

Anna straightened the fabric of her camel coloured dress after handing the sleeping baby over to Edmund.

The eyes of the others were on her, as she stepped outside the chapel to take the call.

"Is this Chief Devane?" a voice asked her on the phone.

Anna closed the heavy wooden door behind her, stepping outside into the grounds of Wildwind. It was a beautiful September afternoon. Not a cloud in the sky.

"Yes, yes this Chief Devane."

"We're sorry to inform you of this over the phone, but there's been an accident."

_Pine Valley Hospital, Pine Valley_

Anna couldn't remember how exactly she had arrived at the hospital. How it was that one moment she'd been holding Leora in her arms at Wildwind and the next she was standing in a hospital hallway.

Who had taken the girl from her? Who had driven her here? She could remember only fragments of words and images.

Aidan putting his strong, calm arms around her when they entered the hospital.

_'He was unconscious when we extracted him from the car.' _

_'Critical condition…lapsed into a coma…'_

Now Joe Martin stood in front of her saying something about internal haemorrhaging and brain wave activity, neither of which she really understood.

"What are you saying?" she demanded. She didn't think she had been crying but now she felt a wet, salty liquid touch her lips.

"It's good news," he said slowly, as though speaking to a child. "It means he could pull through this."

'He _could_ pull through?' Anna was certain she had heard him wrong. Of course David was going to pull through. He was the most obstinate, driven man she knew. He couldn't die.

'No,' she shook her head in a resolute gesture of denial, 'Of course he can't.' He was going to drive her crazy with his unpunctuality long after Leora graduated from high school. Long after both their heads of hair changed into pure white. There was no other option, really. None.

"Anna...I think maybe you should sit down…"

"Sit down?" Anna stared at Aidan. Somehow his hands were resting on her arms again. "Don't be absurd. I can't just sit down. David needs me."

Janelle was there as well. Anna wasn't sure how she got there and now she was giving her the same look she just received from her nephew.

"Aidan's right," she said gently. "You're hyperventilating and you're white as a sheet."

Anna glared at her, "Would you stop treating me like this? I'm not some child you have to protect…I want to see my husband!" She did feel light-headed but not sufficiently for it to dim her anger. She turned to Joe, "Please…can I go see him?"

"I don't think that's a good idea, right now. He's breathing with the help of a respirator and…"

"Please, Joe. I _need_ to see him."

The old man paused, then nodded. "Fine, but just for a minute."

Anna breathed a sigh of relief. If she could only see him, it would reassure her that he couldn't be as precariously close to death as they were making it out to be. They obviously had no idea just how strong he was.

Joe moved her into the operating room. A man had died here earlier today. An elderly, Romanian man, who was hit by a truck driver on the way to his job at a local high school.

Anna had told herself she would remain composed when she saw him. Yes, she was his wife and she loved him, but she was also the Chief of Police. She was tough.

"Oh God," she moved a hand to her mouth to cover the gasp that escaped unwillingly. "No…David. No."

Her husband was bare-chested, his body covered in tubes and wires. Machines whirred as they surrounded his stainless, steel bed and a thick tube ran into his throat, giving his lungs the oxygen they needed to keep his heart pumping. A bandage covered both his head and parts of his abdomen and tiny trails of blood ran alongside them.

"Oh God…" The room spun in front of her. How could the man she loved possibly be alive underneath all that? Her hands still covered her face and again she felt unwilling tears flow over them.

"Anna. Please come outside with me."

She vaguely recognized the voice. Aidan. When exactly had he entered the room?

"Anna…please. This has to be a shock for you."

She shook her head, "No…I want to stay here."

The room kept spinning in front of her and she leaned against the cold, tile wall in an effort to steady it. She kept staring at him, unblinking. Staring at his lifeless form lying on the bed. The smell of disinfectants, medicine and blood was suddenly making her nauseous.

"He was so happy this morning…"

"Anna, please will you come."

Anna didn't hear him. "He said this would be the most wonderful day…the day we christen our daughter and celebrate the love and the faith that brought her this far. He was looking forward to it…" Her voice faded. "So happy…he was so happy…"

She felt herself slowly sliding down the smooth, sterile wall. Were it not for Aidan's quick reaction she would have hit the floor with a thud.


	2. Chapter 2

_Pine Valley Hospital_

_One week later_

"I'm sorry," Joe Martin told her. "But there's nothing more I can tell you. There hasn't been any change."

Anna shook her head, annoyed. "I just can't believe that one week after the accident you're telling me nothing's changed. Nothing."

"He's in a coma, Anna," the old man said gently. "You know what that means. He has to emerge from it of his own accord."

"But what if he doesn't wake up?" she pressed.

"The EEG results have been promising…there is ample brain activity."

Anna frowned. At times she felt that getting information on her husband's condition was like pulling teeth. Since she fainted last week, after first seeing him, Anna now sensed that they were treating her with kid gloves, walking on eggshells to make sure they didn't upset her with a diagnosis that was too bleak for her to handle.

Seeing David that day, lying here, lifeless and still, had pulled the ground from her feet. Literally. It had been too much. Even for her.

But after that unbearable initial shock, she had done the only thing she knew how to do. She had wiped away her tears and steeled herself for the challenge ahead.

She couldn't give in to her fears. Not for Leora. And certainly not for David.

"Can I see him?" she asked Joe.

"Sure. Just remember there's no telling what he can hear or sense. No two coma patients are alike."

Anna bit her lip, "So there's a chance he can hear my voice?"

Joe nodded, "There is."

Anna left him and went into David's room, carefully sitting down next to him, just as she had done the last seven days. His physical wounds were healing and she noticed that some of his bandages had decreased in size and were no longer rimmed with bloodstains. And much to Joe's pleasure he was breathing steadily without the aid of a respirator.

Yet he wouldn't wake up.

He looked peaceful. As though he was merely asleep rather than fighting to emerge from a coma.

Anna kissed his hand. "Hey, sleeping beauty," she whispered with a lopsided grin. "Did you know your little girl is missing you? I have to carry her around and sing to her, so she'll fall asleep at night, the way you do for her. But judging from the way scrunches up her face, I think she likes your singing better. You should've have seen her this morning, David. The way she sat in the crib and stared at the door…it's as though she's waiting for you to walk through it. Both of us are."

She talked to him for a long time. Of everything and nothing. About Leora and the weather and work. About how much she missed him.

_Two days later_

Unfortunately Joe Martin was wrong.

David couldn't hear Anna's voice. Nor could he sense her presence in the room with him.

Yet in the depths of his mind he was as alive as he had ever been.

He was lost in another world. And in that world was where he lived now.

"_Where have you been so long?" he heard a familiar voice ask him. _

_David smiled. It was a voice he thought he'd never hear again. But then, in this new world everything was beautiful and real and possible. _

_He never thought that things could be as perfect as they were now. He felt no pain, no fear, nothing but comfort and joy. Every movement he made was done with such ease he felt as though he was floating on a cloud. _

_Beautiful music rang through the air, each note he heard more wondrous than the last. He didn't know where the music came from but he didn't question it. He knew instinctively that it belonged in this magical world. There were rivers, mountains, waterfalls, rainbows and birds of every colour. He couldn't believe the sights that surrounded him. All he wanted was to stare at them. Stare at colours that were more vivid and alive than any he had ever seen, greeting him at every turn. _

_All of it, every sound and sight and sensation; were so indescribably beautiful, he couldn't ever envision being anywhere else but here._

"_David…can you hear me?" the voice asked him. _

_David turned to look at her and he smiled. "Dixie." _

_She reached out to touch him, her face full of delight at seeing him. "I never thought I'd say this but I've missed you." _

_She was so beautiful. Even more so than he remembered her being. How he had loved her once! Seeing her now, felt so wonderful. _

"_Dixie," he repeated. "You're alive." _

_She laughed. A marvellous crystal clear sound ringing through the air. "You're silly…" she chided him. "You shouldn't be here." _

"_It's perfect here…I've never felt anything like this." _

_She took his hand in hers and looked at him sadly. "Your hands…they're warm. It's just as I thought. You shouldn't be here. Not yet." _

_David kept smiling. "Why are you saying that? I've never been as happy as I am now. I thought I'd never see you again…but here you are. It's a miracle! Everything here is a miracle!"_

_Dixie's lovely face took on an anxious expression. "David…you don't have much time. You can't stay here." _

_David frowned, yet he felt no anger, no discontent. "Of course I can," her told her gently. _

"_David, do you remember that you once told me that you'd never refuse me if I asked something of you?" _

_David nodded. "Yes…it's true. You can ask me anything and I'll gladly do it for you." _

"_I want you to leave." _

"_Leave? But why?" _

"_Please…don't question what I'm asking you to do," she implored him, her blue eyes as radiant as he had ever seen them "You have to leave here before it's too late."_

"_But I don't ever want to leave…" _

"_David, please you promised me." _

_Her wish left him puzzled. "But why? And how, how would I leave?" _

"_You have to close your eyes." _

_David shook his head. No, he couldn't close his eyes. Missing a single moment of the fantastic sights that surrounded him was an unbearable thought. "No…don't ask me to do that. Please, Dixie. I'll do anything else but don't ask me that." _

"_It's the only way." She was crying now. "Please, David. You were the only one who helped me when I needed it most. I won't let you give up now." _

"_Ask me something else, Dixie and I'll do it gladly for you." _

"_No…there's nothing else. Please just close your eyes, David." _

_He shook his head, hating to disappoint her but unable to stop himself, "I'm sorry, Dixie. I can't."_

-

_One week later_

_Pine Valley Hospital_

"Hi sweetheart," Anna called out to her daughter in the hospital hallway, nestled safely in Aidan's arms.

She kissed the little girl and took her from her nephew's arms. "Thank you for bringing her here," she told Aidan.

Aidan smiled and bent down slightly to kiss his aunt on her cheek, "It's my pleasure, Anna."

"I thought she might like to spend some time with her Dad."

Aidan nodded. "I'm sure she would."

"Anna…"

Anna heard someone call her name from the distance and spotted Tad Martin. He walked up to them and she greeted him in return.

He seemed anxious. On edge.

"Could I talk to you for a moment?" he asked her.

Anna raised her eyebrows, "Sure."

Tad observed her. She looked so tired that merely looking at her magnified his guilt.

What could be more draining than seeing the man you loved, tethering between life and death?

Yet at the same time her gaze was direct and intense, a fact that shouldn't have surprised him. From the little he knew of her Tad knew she was tough. Strong.

If anyone could deal with this, while raising a little girl and running a police department, it was Anna Devane.

_But she shouldn't have to_.

"What is it Tad?" she asked him.

"I know this is going to sound crazy," he started.

"What is?"

"The day of David's accident…I…"

How could he possibly explain this? "I think I might have had something to do with it."

Anna narrowed her eyebrows. "The accident? It was a drunk driver that hit David's Explorer. He was released from the hospital yesterday and we have him in custody."

"No…not in that way."

"I don't understand."

Tad frowned. He liked Anna. In another time, another place they might even have been friends. Colleagues. "The day of the accident I was here, at the hospital. And there was this woman…I don't know how to explain this, but it's like she was reading my mind. You see, I wanted David to suffer, to _really_ suffer, the same way I suffered when I lost Dixie. And somehow, this woman, she knew that…"

Anna put her hands on Tad's arm, as it dawned on her what he was trying to say. Tad Martin had hated David for a long time, and justifiably so. Anna wasn't blind to her husband's faults. He had committed acts that merited the wrath they reaped. Because she loved David, she had been able to forgive him but she understood that others couldn't. Others, like Tad.

"Tad…I know there was no love lost between you and David. I know you hated what he did to you and Dixie and I don't blame you for wanting him to suffer. Maybe I would have thought the same things were I in your place. But please don't feel in any way responsible or guilty for what happened. This accident…" Anna paused, weighing her words; "It was a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Nothing more and nothing less."

Tad shook his head, "You don't understand, Anna. This woman…she touched me and told me to be careful of what I wish for."

Anna turned away from him, wondering why he was doing this. Putting crazy, implausible thoughts into her head. Wasn't it difficult enough just to get up in the morning and face another day not knowing whether David would wake up or not? Wasn't it difficult enough to face the possibility that he might never wake up again? To face all that without falling apart because her daughter needed her to be strong.

"Tad…don't do this to yourself. Or to me. I don't believe in curses and bad karma. And maybe you shouldn't either."

"I'm sorry…" Tad said softly. "I'm not doing this to hurt you. I can't explain it, Anna. But I know there was more to this accident than just being in the wrong time at the wrong place."

Anna sat down in the nearest chair, suddenly realizing just how exhausted she was. She ran a hand through her hair, stifling a yawn, before returning her gaze to Tad.

"Let's say for some crazy, out of this world reason you were right?" she asked him sadly, "What if you caused David's accident? What then? What difference would it make now?"

Tad sat down next to her, wearily. "I don't know…that's why I came to see you."


	3. Chapter 3

_David's Room, Pine Valley Hospital _

_One week later_

_-_

_His world was still beautiful. Indescribably beautiful. The sun always shone, yet it was never too warm and just as he thought he had seen the most beautiful sight ever, another more spectacular one crossed his line of vision._

_David laughed when he saw the majestic horse peek out of the lush, green forest, with its long, perfectly straight horn, eyes staring directly at him._

_"Unicorns don't exist," he told himself incredulously, still laughing. But here they did. _

_"Hey big brother…what the heck are you doing here?"_

_"Leo?" David turned around in awe. "Leo…oh god, I never thought I'd see you again." Tears of joy fell down his cheeks as he embraced his brother. He didn't want to ever let go of him again. "Leo, Leo…" he repeated the name over and over._

_"Watch it…people are going to start wondering," Leo finally managed, his own face wet with tears. He wiped them away and smiled, "You look good big bro, you haven't changed a bit."_

_David laughed, "Neither have you." David cupped his brother's face with his hands and kissed him._

_At that gesture, Leo suddenly pushed him away._

_"What is it?" David asked._

_"Your hands…"_

_"What's wrong with them?"_

_"They're warm…that means you shouldn't be here."_

_"What are you talking about? I've never felt as good as I do now."_

_Leo's face was suddenly serious, "I know you do…but it's not right."_

_"I don't understand. Dixie, she said the same thing."_

_"It's sign," Leo stammered._

_"A sign of what?" David asked._

_"That there's been a mistake."_

_"I still don't understand."_

_Leo's face was as serious as David had ever seen it. "Sometimes people are brought here by mistake and while their hands are still warm they still have a chance to leave."_

_"But I don't ever want to leave," David told him happily._

_Leo put his hands on his brother's shoulder, "Yes, you do. There are people out there that need you…that are missing you."_

_David shook his head, "No, that can't be. I have everything I want here."_

_Leo was getting frantic, "What about your daughter? The little girl you named for me. And what about Anna?"_

_David looked at him in surprise. Leo was right. How could he have forgotten about them? They were his life. His everything. "I don't know…I didn't think of them."_

_He saw Leo breathe a sigh of relief, gald to see that he remembered them._

_"You do want to go back to them, right?"_

_David nodded, "Yes, yes of course I do. I don't know why I didn't think of them." Yet even as he said the words, he had trouble remembering their faces. What exactly did they look like, his wife and his daughter?_

_"I need you to close your eyes, big bro," Leo told him, and for the first time David sensed the urgency in his voice._

_David groaned at the thought. "I can't…I might miss something."_

_Leo frowned, grabbing his hands. "David, your hands are getting colder. That means you don't have much time to do this. Just listen to me…you have to close your eyes and erase this world from your mind. Only then can you go back to the other one."_

_"No, I'm sorry, Leo. I can't."_

_"Yes, you can," Leo told him angrily. " You can and you will."_

_"Why are you making me do this?" David demanded. He was surprised at his brother's insistence, but he was neither irritated nor upset. He decided such emotions weren't possible here._

_Leo gave him a push onto a bed of rainbow coloured flowers. "Close your eyes, David."_

_"Why?"_

_"For Anna and Leora. "_

_As soon as Leo mentioned them he remembered their faces again. Why was he forgetting them so quickly? Of course he would do anything for his little girl and the woman he loved._

_"But why is it so important?"_

_"Geez, would you just trust me and do it? How often do I ask you to do something for me?"_

_David's eyes scanned his surroundings. He searched in vain for the unicorn, next to the lush, emerald green forest. He made a half-hearted attempt to close his eyes, finding the task unbearably hard. Why was something so simple suddenly so difficult?_

_He managed to close them and was assaulted by a wave of pain that wracked his body._

_"Ah…" he groaned. Everything was dark and cold and full of indescribable pain. He wanted nothing more than to escape and return to the world he was in._

_Unable to bear it any longer, he was about to re-open his eyes, when he felt Leo's hands keeping them shut._

_"What are you doing?" he demanded._

_"You can't open them yet…you have to keep going," Leo's voice told him._

_It kept getting darker and colder._

_"I can't…"_

_"I didn't say this was easy," Leo's voice told him. "That's how it works. You have to fight to make your way back, no matter how much it hurts."_

_"No…" David groaned. Leo had no idea just how much it hurt. He couldn't possibly. He used the remainder of his strength to push Leo's hands away from his eyes, opening them again._

_As soon as he did the colours returned. His body once again felt light and gone was the excruciating pain._

_"What did you do?" Leo asked him sadly, tears flowing down his face. "Why didn't you fight?"_

_David wanted to wipe away his brother's tears, wishing he hadn't disappointed him. "I'm sorry, Leo," he said apologetically. "It hurt too much. I couldn't do it. I couldn't leave."_

_-_

_Later_

_Pine Valley Police Station, Pine Valley _

Anna put the receiver down and rubbed her temples. It was Dr. Joe Martin who had just called her. Apparently David had shown his first signs of responding to outside stimuli this morning. At first the news elated her, but then came Joe's gentle reminder that coma patients often make involuntary movements and he told her not to see it as anything but minor progress.

"But it's the first time for David, so I still believe we have to interpret that as a good sign," he had told her before ending the conversation.

'Make up your mind,' she thought silently, staring into the walls of her office. 'Make up your mind whether I should get my hopes up or not.'

David had been in a coma for over two weeks now. Every day that he didn't come out of it would increase his chances of permanent brain damage. Every day that passed without him waking decreased the likelihood that he would ever wake at all.

'Stop it!' she growled, chiding herself. 'Don't you dare go there. He will wake up.'

_Will he?_

"Ugh," she hated self-doubt and self pity even more. She had a beautiful, healthy daughter awaiting her at home. A little girl who deserved a mother who had as much faith as her father.

'David had faith in you, it's time for you to have faith in him,' she reminded herself.

Anna checked her watch. It was late. Time to leave her dreary office and go home to the light of her life.

Anna turned off her desktop lamp, and bit her lower lip in the semi-darkness of her office.

"But first, I'm going to stop by the hospital and see your dad," she whispered to herself. "To let him know it's time to come home to us."


	4. Chapter 4

_David's Room, Pine Valley Hospital, Pine Valley_

Tad Martin's knees went weak when he entered the room.

Aside from the low, steady drone of the machines monitoring David's vital signs, the room was silent. There were flowers everywhere. On the bedside stand and packed tightly along the windowsill. Roses, gerberas, daisies, sunflowers and tulips. Countless yellow tulips.

Tad managed a nervous smile, "You should see these flowers. They're incredible…if these aren't worth waking up for I don't know what is."

He stared at David's unconscious form, lying motionless on the hospital bed.

"If this is your way of telling me I won, well, then I have to tell you David, they're right, winning isn't everything."

His old nemesis looked peaceful. He looked as though he was sleeping.

"I…I came here to tell you something. I don't know if you can hear me or not. But I want you to know that I didn't want this. I thought I did…" Tad paused, sighing. "But I don't. I thought having you lose everything would somehow make it up to me and Dixie, but, you know what? It doesn't." He managed a chuckle, "Who was it that said 'an eye for an eye makes everyone blind'? I think they might have been right."

He moved towards David, touching his still body with the tips of his fingers. "I don't know if I had anything to do with this…but if I did I'm sorry." The truth was that it had been easy to blame David for all that had gone wrong between him and Dixie. Too easy. In his own way David loved Dixie. He had risked his life and career to use his experimental drug on her when she fell ill in the Caribbean.

It was Dixie who insisted on carrying her child to term, in spite of the risks, not David.

It was also Dixie who insisted that her whereabouts remain a secret. David had merely respected her wishes, as any physician, or friend might have done.

Even their love affair, he couldn't blame entirely on Hayward. 'It takes two for an affair…'

God knows David had paid his dues. He nearly lost both his wife and unborn child before Leora was born. And the greatest irony of all was that David's little girl was born with a heart defect. The great cardiologist was unable to cure his own child's heart problem.

"I should think that's payback enough, isn't it?" Tad asked him. "And what about Anna and Leora? Why should they have to pay for your sins?"

He paused, "If I really played a part in this…I came to tell you I'm sorry. Whatever it is I thought I wanted for you…I don't want it anymore. It's over and…" He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence when he heard the door opening.

"Anna…"

"Tad, what are you doing here?"

"I…I had to see him."

Anna nodded and said nothing, her dark, clever eyes observing him in silence.

"I'll make my way out now…"

He wasn't out the door yet, when he felt Anna's hand on his shoulder. The gesture was so eerily reminiscent of the old woman's touch a few weeks ago it made him tremble.

"What is it?" he asked her.

"Thank you," she said softly.

"Why?"

"For coming here."

"I…" he stammered at a loss for words, embarrassed. He didn't deserve her kindness.

"I'm sure it helped." She gave him a hesitant smile, " Please promise me you won't blame yourself for this. It was an accident that's all."

He nodded, saying nothing as he quietly left the room.

Anna waited until his footsteps were only distant echoes in the hospital hallway, then she sat down on the rim of David's bed.

She chuckled, running her index finger along his hairline, relishing in the silky touch of his hair. "You attract some unlikely visitors."

She yawned, resting her head on his chest, grateful for the steady rise and fall of his breath. "I should go home to our little girl…"

Only now did she realize just how tired she was. "I'll just close my eyes for a few minutes…that's all."

She was asleep before she finished her thought. A deep, rich, dream filled sleep.

-

_"Anna?"_

_"Anna, why are you here?" David's eyes widened in surprise and excitement._

_"David?" Her eyes filled with tears. " Oh, I've missed you so much."_

_She let his arms wrap themselves around her, pulling her ever closer towards him._

_David smiled. He thought this world was perfect, but he was wrong. It wasn't. Not until now. "I've missed you too," he whispered into her ear, breathlessly. It felt so good to hold her in his arms. Her scent, her touch and the way her smile lit up her face when he wiped away her tears. He didn't realize how much he missed her smile until this very moment._

_He could have held her for an eternity, soaking in the sight of her like a sponge. How was it possible that he didn't miss her before?_

_He felt Anna push herself away._

_"What are you doing?" he asked, feeling a sense of disappointment deep in his gut. It was a strange sensation, one he was no longer accustomed to. As if to compensate for this unusual emotion, the world around him shone brighter than ever before. Bright, glorious colours, so luminous they strove to take his sadness away._

_"I have to leave," Anna told him tenderly._

_"No, you don't. I want you to stay with me."_

_"I know…but I can't. Our daughter needs me. I know you can't come back…so all she has is me, to raise her and love her. To watch her grow and become a wonderful young woman."_

_"But I want that too…" There was nothing in the world he wanted more than to see his little girl grow up. To be there when she took her first steps, spoke her first words…_

_"If you do then you have to come with me…I can't stay with you."_

_"I'll come then…"_

_The colours shone brighter still, overwhelming him with their beauty. Yet all he saw was Anna. He had forgotten what Dixie and Leo had told him to do, how to leave this place. "But I don't how," he told Anna, suddenly confused._

_"I don't know either." She moved further away from him. "But I have to go, I can't stay long. Leora is waiting for me."_

_"Anna…show me how!"_

_She was crying again, "I would tell you if I knew, but I don't know, David. You have to find the way yourself…I can't find it for you."_

_He closed his eyes in frustration and was immediately assaulted by a wave of pain. Yes, that was it. He remembered now. He had to close his eyes.'_

_It hurt so much. And it was so cold, so dark._

_'Anna where are you?' he called out to her. Afraid and in pain. Maybe he could do it if he knew she was there, waiting for him, but he wasn't sure anymore._

_He clenched his teeth in pain. Oh God, how could he stand it for only another second?_

_He thought of Anna and Leora and used his last remaining strength to keep his eyes closed._

"David!" Anna cried and bolted upright into wakefulness. Her breath came in heavy gasps. She held a hand to her chest and slowly regained her bearings.

She had fallen asleep in David's hospital room and started to dream. It was an awful dream. She had seen David, lost in a forest and she kept calling out to him, trying to pull him away from the trees and the darkness, but instead she kept losing him as he wandered deeper and deeper into the forest.

She took a deep breath to steady the pounding of her heart, and checked her watch. It had been almost two hours since she came here. 'Oh my, Leora…' Maggie was looking after her tonight and she must be worried sick.

Anna got up on unsteady legs that had fallen asleep.

She was about to bend down to kiss David before leaving, when suddenly she noticed one of his fingers moving.

She gasped, "Oh God."

His lips trembled and slowly, as if frozen in time, both his eyelids opened, and cautiously stared at her.

"Oh God…" She was shaking now, holding her hands over her mouth. "David? David are you really here…"

His lips moved but no sound came from them.

Her fingers gently ran along them. "It's okay…" she whispered, tears falling down her cheeks. "You don't have to talk…" Was he really looking at her? Or was she still dreaming?

'I should call a nurse…a doctor…'

Anna suddenly felt David's fingers tighten around hers, a gesture that besieged her with emotions. "David…"

"Anna…" he said, so softly she could barely hear.

More tears fell down her cheeks and Anna held his hand against her face.

"Shh…it's okay. Don't talk…everything's going to be alright."

"Anna…" he repeated her name, softly, saying it as though it was the prize at the end of the journey.

The light at the end of the tunnel.

"Anna…you're here. I…I made it…"

She couldn't help but laugh amidst her tears, "You did, baby. You did. Welcome back."

_Two weeks later_

_Wildwind Estate Chapel_

David Hayward smiled when he entered the old stone chapel.

He was early and it was empty, save for the rays of sunlight that fought their way through the stain-glass windows, illuminating it in soft hues of blue and green. He closed his eyes and rested his hand on the cane he still needed to walk, basking in the divine silence.

"Thank you," he whispered, with a newfound humility, "Thank you for helping me find my way back."

He heard the sound of high-heeled footsteps approaching him on the stone floor.

"Hmm…look sweetheart, Daddy's talking to himself in the chapel. How weird…"

David turned around to see Anna holding Leora in her long white christening gown.

"You're early," she teased. "Even the priest hasn't arrived yet."

David grinned as he bent over to kiss her cheek, "I have a very punctual wife."

"Lucky you."

David sat down in one of the wooden pews. "Lucky me."

Anna handed him Leora, and the little girl stretched her arms as she woke up from a nap.

Anna laughed, "That priest better hurry up…now that she's awake, she's going to get very impatient."

David let the baby wrap her fingers around his. "I'll have to let her know that she has all the time in the world. That nothing will stop the ceremony today."

Anna nodded in agreement, "I'm going to check on Edmund at the main house…to let him know we're ready, whenever the priest and the guests arrive."

David reached out for her arm, "Don't go just yet…sit with us for a minute."

Anna smiled, "Alright…" She gave him a slight push as she sat down next to him.

David's eyes rested on her, "Thank you…" he said quietly.

Anna raised her eyebrows, "For what?"

"For your smile. It's what made me fight to come back."

He thought he saw her blush.

"Very smooth, Doctor Hayward."

David laughed, "It's the truth. You have no idea how…"

"Uh huh…"

David put his free arm around her, knowing this moment would stay in his memory forever. That no world was more perfect than the one he lived in now.

-

_Together, the three of them, they lived happily ever after_

_-_

**The end**


End file.
